The embodiments relate, in general, to radiation systems, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for determining and monitoring parameters of a radiation treatment or therapy system.
A radiation system is known, for instance from German Patent Disclosure DE 199 04 675 A1. Before a radiation therapy is performed, regions of a patient body to be radiated are typically examined using a medical imaging method, such as computed tomography or CT. Images made of the patient, immobilized in the body region to be examined, are stored in memory as a data set. With the aid of this data set, parameter settings of a radiation system are made, such as the ones pertaining or corresponding to fields or radiation types. Simulating a radiation treatment, before the radiation system is programmed may also be possible. In performing the radiation treatment, a geometry and other properties of a tissue or body region to be radiated have assumingly not changed since examination and diagnosis via the imaging method. If properties of the tissue to be radiated do change in the course of the radiation therapy, a consequence is that the selected parameter setting of the radiation system may now be less adapted to the requirements of the radiation treatment.
From German Patent Disclosure DE 102 10 050 A1, a method for repositioning a patient in a diagnostic/therapeutic system, as well as such a system, are known. In an initial session, reference images are made of the patient, or part of the patient, using two video cameras. In a subsequent session, these reference images are compared with current images, and the position of the patient is changed until visible differences in position have been minimized.